The confirmation hearing for Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general will run for two days starting Jan. 10, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley of Iowa announced Friday.

Grassley limited the length of the hearing, having said previously that he wants to head off Democratic attacks on the Alabama Republican’s character. He said prior confirmation hearings for attorney general nominees lasted one or two days and featured three to nine outside witnesses at each.

A Democrat has already announced his candidacy for a special election in Washington’s 5th District, but President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t yet nominated House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers to a position in his Cabinet. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

As of Friday afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump had not officially announced Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers as his pick for secretary of the Interior.

But that didn’t stop Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart, a Democrat, from congratulating McMorris Rodgers “on her appointment” and announcing his bid for a special election to replace the six-term congresswoman in Washington’s 5th District.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., was the first member of Congress down the House steps following the final House vote of this session of Congress on Thursday. The House passed a spending bill to fund the government through April before heading home for the holiday recess. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

The business of the 114th Congress is coming to a close. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, who served in the Senate for 36 years, visited the Hill several times including to preside over a health care vote. A live nativity took place in front of the Supreme Court complete with camels. And Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada saw the unveiling of his portrait, which prompted the first Hill appearance by Hillary Clinton following the election.

Thousands converged in 2013 to march from Capitol Hill to the Lincoln Memorial to honor the 50th anniversary of the 1963 march on Washington. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call file photo)

The planned women’s march to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration won’t be in front of the Lincoln Memorial as planned, but organizers say it will go on somewhere near the Capitol.

The planned Women’s March on Washington quickly went viral in the day’s after Trump’s election, calling on women to gather at the Lincoln Memorial on the day after the inauguration. Organizers’ Facebook page shows 227,000 people interested in attending and 138,000 people listed as saying they’re going.

China's state-run CCTV America has pool duty at Trump Tower as the U.S. president-elect continues criticizing the government in Beijing. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images File Photo)

It only took the Chinese government a month to penetrate Donald Trump’s headquarters in Manhattan amid the president-elect’s ongoing aggressive words and deeds against Beijing.

CCTV America is the U.S.-based arm of China Central Television, which is run by the Chinese government. A blurb on its website defines the network as “the media crossroads where news and ‘views’ about the world’s two largest national economies intersect and sometimes collide.”

Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, may find it difficult to deregulate many of President Barack Obama’s climate protection initiatives.

Though a Republican Congress could overturn some of Obama’s last-minute “midnight” regulations with a simple majority vote, longer standing rules like the Clean Power Plan could prove tougher to cut, according to Reuters.

As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers voted for legislation to allow more oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

President-elect Donald Trump has selected Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to lead the Interior Department, according to The New York Times, which cites two people close to the transition effort. If confirmed, the Washington Republican would be in charge of the nation’s public lands and waters in an administration that may aim to open them up to fossil fuel extraction.

McMorris Rodgers, 47, is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and has voted for legislation to allow more oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Andrew Puzder, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of Labor, said in a 2013 conference that too much was being spent on border security. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images file photo)

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Labor Andrew Puzder praised immigration reform in the past and criticized border security as a waste of money, which is drawing criticism from some Trump supporters.

During a Q&A in 2013 at the American Enterprise Institute, Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, said immigration reform would be good for business, Yahoo News reported.

On Nov. 16, 2011, Glenn (center with red tie) is among a group of the first astronauts to win the Congressional Gold Medal. Astronaut Neil Armstrong receives a medal from then-Speaker of the House John A. Boehner of Ohio, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada presents Glenn’s and then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky presents one to astronaut Buzz Aldrin, at a ceremony in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. (Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth and national hero as a member of the Mercury 7, has died at 95, according to reports. While John Glenn’s life in the public eye began well before he headed to Washington in 1975 as a four-term senator from Ohio, that’s certainly when CQ Roll Call’s camera lens turned on the distinguished senator.

Astronaut and former Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, seen here on Nov. 16, 2011, when he and other astronauts received the Congressional Gold Medal in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. (Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Former Ohio Sen. John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, has died at the age of 95.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO shown here on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in July, said Rep. Keith Ellison “meets the high standard working people expect.” (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

The executive council of one of the country’s largest labor union collectives officially endorsed Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison on Thursday for chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Ohio Sen. John Glenn, during a press conference at NASA headquarters in downtown Washington in January 1998, to announce his return to the space program. Glenn, who served four terms in the Senate, has been hospitalized since last week. (Douglas Graham/Congressional Quarterly file photo)

Former Ohio Sen. John Glenn, best known for his exploits as an astronaut in the 1960s, has been hospitalized.

Glenn’s health has declined in recent years, and the last surviving member of NASA’s Project Mercury was losing his eyesight, and had undergone open heart surgery in 2014, Cleveland.com reported.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton arrive for a campaign rally in Scranton, Pa., on Aug. 15. On Thursday, he said his party has not shown enough “respect” for or listened to white working-class voters. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said the Democratic Party is not “showing enough respect” to white working-class men while rejecting the notion that racism prompted that bloc of voters to help elect Donald Trump.